First Sunday Back in Buffalo after Mexico Mission

I'm back in Buffalo on this chilly and rainy Sunday, my first since returning Wed. evening on an Air Tran flight from San Antonio, Texas where I stayed a night at a local Red Roof Inn with my friends from Buffalo,  Al Sammarco and Bishop William Dockery who joined me for the final three days of our time there in Juarez.  

I was able to take them to Guadalupe also to see the work we did on the pouring of the floor and give them a chance to hear the vision from Steve Brewer; Director of Tapestries of Life Ministries which is building the Children's home in the desert of Guadalupe, MX.

Here's a few more photos.

Mission Accomplished - Back in Buffalo After 10 day Mission to Mexico

We poured the floor in Guadalupe, visited Rivers of Mercy Children's Home in Juarez,  spoke and ministered in Pastor Julio's Church; Betesda, and prayed and visited with Pastor Jose Compean, Director of Juventud con Vision Children's Home and his family.  God is great and God is Good.  To Him be the glory!

In the photos below here we are visiting another children's home.  This one is called Rivers of Mercy in Juarez, Mexico where 30 children are being raised in a Christian environment.  An American named Kristen Robles originally from Albequerqie, NX along with her Mexican husband Emmis are the directors of this facility and are doing a great job with the kids here.  In the bottom two photos is my friend from Mexico who now lives in El Paso named Cesar.  There he is with two new children that he found here who started calling him Papa right away.  I know he was blessed as they were.

We Poured The Cafeteria Floor Today !

We arrived in the early morning hours.  It was still dark around 6AM when our vans pulled in and we began taking tools out of the work shed and making our way over to the project sight.  We worked from dawn till dusk.  Twenty-one cement trucks and a lot of work later we have a new cafeteria floor.  To God be the glory.

Mercy Day Success Today !

Today was Mercy Day in Guadalupe, Mexico.  Our team drove to a big local supermarket in Juarez and loaded our trailer and vans up with $4,000 worth of store bought food.  We took the food down to the center of town and began to distribute it to several hundred families who stood in line for a couple of hours waiting to receive food for their  families.  Their were 11 salvations recorded in response to a local pastor's evangelistic message!

Our 2nd Day of Work at Casa de Las Gemas

We are at the point of just about being ready for the big concrete pour this coming Thursday only 2 days from today. It will be great to see this floor poured, something that has taken a lot of prayer and finance raising to get accomplished.  It two day it will be.

Making a lot of progress on the foundation for the 

new walk -in cooler/freezer

Wire mesh laid down for cement pour.

A lot of wire mesh laid down for our cement pour.

A Great First Day of Work at The Children's Home in Guadalupe

We crossed the border early this morning with three vans full of volunteers from around the USA, 19 of us in all and worked all day laying down wire mesh for our big concrete pour, while some of the team worked with our master plumber volunteer named Lanny and his grandson Isaiah.  We are ahead of schedule already after our first day.  Here's some photos of our day's efforts.

Our Mission Week Begins With Worship and Prayer As We Visit Two Churches; One in Texas and the other in Mexico

Arrived in Guadalupe, Mexico

Arrived safely at our team headquarters in Guadalupe, Mexico after a long flight from Buffalo.  Left Buffalo 8AM via Southwest Airlines, flew to Las Vegas and had a plane change and finally arrived in El Paso at 3:20PM  but it wasn't till around 6PM when we left the airport for our 30 mile drive south the team headquarters.

We had to wait for other team members flying in from other cities.  Finally after a great home cooked dinner here we are settled in for the night.  Church tomorrow twice.  First in a big church in El Paso then we cross the border to see how they do it in Mexico.  A study in contrasts.

Awaiting Departure This Saturday Morning in Buffalo, NY

It was a quiet few hours at the airport here in Buffalo in the early hours after 12 mid-night this Saturday morning but now the pace is picking up...

People including me have gone through the TSA security check points, shown their tickets 

and passports and took off their shoes and put their laptops in grey bins, emptied their pockets and received a pat down.

All part of the process of boarding a plane nowadays. I'm through and sitting at gate #16 at 4:58AM waiting for my 8:00AM boarding and departure. Talk about being an early bird. Here I am, where's the plane? This mission to Mexico has begun.

Mission To Mexico 2012 Has Begun

Tonight I am sitting in the McDonalds across the street from the Airport here in Buffalo, NY.  The time is 11:14PM.  I just took two buses from my house to get here.  It's a little cool this Fall evening but it isn't raining which is a good thing.

The plan is to wait it out at the airport till morning when at 7AM I will begin the checking in and boarding process.  I thought about getting a ride here in the very early morning but not having a car at the moment the only way for me to get here is to either impose on someone to get up that early and drive me to the airport or get here myself and wait a little while here at the airport.

This will not be the first time I have waited it out at the airport.  I remember a couple of mission trips ago waiting it out at an airport in Chattanooga, TN for a flight connection in the morning.  You find things to do, nap a bit and then the waiting finally comes to an end when the clock says it's time to get moving toward the ticket counter.  That's the plan for tonight.

Tomorrow morning is not that far away and my first leg of this trip; Las Vegas, Neveda by air is also not that far away, relatively speaking of course.  A jet cruises at about 500 miles an hour so 2 hours of flying will move me a thousand miles down the road.  Looking forward to the morning flight in that direction.

This Coming Saturday, The Mission Begins - October 13-23, 2012

This coming Saturday I will board a Southwest Airlines jet and fly to El Paso, TX where I will meet three young men from a church in Asheville, NC.  The four of us will then be picked up by a van from Tapestries of Life Ministries in Fabens, TX.

We will drive 30 miles south of El Paso to Fabens and spend our first night at Tapestries headquarters with other members of the construction team that will be flying in from other parts of the USA to do the work of pouring the foundation for a new cafeteria being constructed by Tapestries across the border from Fabens in the Mexican town of Guadalupe.

After our work week in Guadalupe we will be driven back to the airport in El paso where we will meet an incoming flight that will be transporting my two friends from Buffalo; Bishop William Dockery and Al Sammarco.  Then the six of us will cross the border into Juarez for 3 days of ministry.

We are all looking forward to this latest mission that I believe will have future ramifications.  The things we do on this mission will pave the way for future ministry in this troubled border town in need of God's presence.  We will arrive and bring some hope for the future to our friends in Jaurez and Guadalupe, Mexico.  Thanks for your prayers and support.

Two Weeks From Today - A New Mission Begins

Just 14 days from today I am hoping to board an airliner for a flight to El Paso, TX where I will begin a week of missions work at an orphanage in the small town of Guadalupe, Mexico which is about 30 miles south of the El Paso border.

Two young men from Asheville, NC will join me on this mission.  They will fly in and meet me at the airport in El Paso and then the three of us will be picked up by a van from Tapestries of Life Ministries in Fabens, TX, the ministry that is building the this children's home that will on day be home for over 350 of Mexico's neediest children.

This mission is about pouring the concrete floor for the new cafeteria building, a project that the team that I was on last October started.  I am looking forward to seeing some of the same people I worked with last year.

In the mean time over this past week since my last posting I have been busy here in Buffalo doing painting work on two houses.  One of those houses is in a town north of Buffalo called Lockport and owned by a long time friend of mine named Al Sammarco and the other house is owned by my brother Dan.

I am pretty much finished with Al's house, just the porch steps to do but my brother's house still has a bit of painting that still needs to be done.  Here are some photos of this past weeks work as i paint my 2nd blue house this summer.

Painted Today On West Side of Buffalo